CHARACTERIZATION STUDY ON THERMAL ACTIVATION OF PETROLEUM COKE (PETCOKE) & OIL PALM SHELL (OPS)

Waste materials can be used as feedstock for gasification process due to its high heating value.  Petroleum Coke (PETCOKE) and Oil Palm Shell (OPS) are among the waste materials that can be used as feedstock in the gasification process. The characterization and properties of the untreated and treated (activated) PETCOKE and OPS through pyrolysis (thermal) were investigated to determine the suitability as feedstock for the gasification process The chemical properties were investigated using the Elemental Analyzer, SEM-EDX , XRF, RAMAN and the physical properties such as surface area, pore volume and pore size were determined using the Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET). It was found that there are changes in its elemental constituent as well as its morphological structure and surface area after activation at 900oC were performed. In overall, there is significance improvement observed physically and chemically for OPS compared to PETCOKE in terms of its organic constituent, inorganic constituent, as well as the chemical structure.